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To celebrate the Arnie's life and share with you his remarkable story, we've provided the chapter on Infinity Systems as a PDF from The Absolute Sound's Illustrated History of High-End Audio, Volume One: Loudspeakers. Please download the PDF here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9sl6ndfi76...Audio.pdf?dl=0

Yes, Mike Kay was one of those special people in the industry too. If it weren't for him, Mark Levinson and Arnie Nudell wouldn't have got off the starting blocks.

Having worked for over a decade for Mike Kay I must say that Mike was extremely generous to many in the audio Industry including Arnie and Mark. We were the largest High End dealer for Infinity and at one time were exclusive for the IRS and also for Mark Levinson.
Lyric had a lot of things going for it. It was in the largest market and Mike ran a business that made money. Most audio stores then were just getting their feet wet with High End while Lyric was the temple of the high end and everyone from around the world came there to see and hear the products that were being represented and actually stocked. Lyric was offered everything first and Mike always tried to help new companies. The list is endless and his place in my opinion in the pantheon of the HE is very unknown and understated.
Arnie, Harry P and Mike Kay were my mentors and I was privileged to get to hang and drink with them as well as learn a ton about listening and music. My fondest memories come from that time .I always will remember going to Carnegie Hall at Christmas time to hear Beethoven's 9 with the LA Philharmonic with full chorus directed by Gullini with the 3 wise men of Audio . The dinners were legendary and for a kid from LI who never before had caviar or great wine they became memories that have lasted my entire life.
RIP to Arnie, Harry and to my second father Mike Kay

Peace.

Bending Wave USA distributors of Gobel High End Loudspeakers and Cables 100 percent made in Germany
Dealers for CH Precision

Yesterday I just happen to pick a copy of TAS at random out of my TAS library. It was the December 1980 issue. Inside I noticed the second installment of HP's first review of the IRS, along with Arnie's manufacturer's comments - still relevant 37 years later, and the subjects of countless postings on internet forums, so I thought some of you might be interested in reading the comments.

Having worked for over a decade for Mike Kay I must say that Mike was extremely generous to many in the audio Industry including Arnie and Mark. We were the largest High End dealer for Infinity and at one time were exclusive for the IRS and also for Mark Levinson.
Lyric had a lot of things going for it. It was in the largest market and Mike ran a business that made money. Most audio stores then were just getting their feet wet with High End while Lyric was the temple of the high end and everyone from around the world came there to see and hear the products that were being represented and actually stocked. Lyric was offered everything first and Mike always tried to help new companies. The list is endless and his place in my opinion in the pantheon of the HE is very unknown and understated.
Arnie, Harry P and Mike Kay were my mentors and I was privileged to get to hang and drink with them as well as learn a ton about listening and music. My fondest memories come from that time .I always will remember going to Carnegie Hall at Christmas time to hear Beethoven's 9 with the LA Philharmonic with full chorus directed by Gullini with the 3 wise men of Audio . The dinners were legendary and for a kid from LI who never before had caviar or great wine they became memories that have lasted my entire life.
RIP to Arnie, Harry and to my second father Mike Kay

Peace.

Although I have one of Arnie’s loudspeakers in house (Genesis 1.1) I hesitated to join this thread because I never met Arnie. When we distributed Genesis loudspeakers in the Benelux many, many moons ago we used to have contact with Paul. The touching contribution of Elliot regarding Arnie, Harry Pearson and Mike Kay bring back fond memories, for example when Paul joined one of our hifi shows in Amsterdam. Some of my friends and I showed Paul some interesting sites in Amsterdam and of course we talked in depth about the various Genesis loudspeakers that were available at the time and the people involved.

Time flies and since our meeting in Amsterdam quite some ‘audio heroes’ have left us. It is really sad to hear that Arnie joined this list of my ‘audio heroes’. To remember him I listen at the moment to the very moving Passacaille of Ravel’s piano trio in A minor. May Arnie rest in peace.

Last week, I bumped into an old friend during the local Hi Fi Show and he immediately alerted me that there was an IRS Beta in one of the room exhibits. He knew that I was a fan of that series of loudspeakers from Infinity and he himself is no stranger to Infinity products and more specially, to Arnie Nudell. His name is Robert Tan. Gary, you may have met him or talked to him, as he was the importer of Arnie's Genesis line of speakers, at the infancy of the company established by Arnie and Paul McGowen. He brought in many Genesis models in the 90s, and to this day, still has not one but 2 units of New Old Stock Genesis Model 2 in his warehouse. He was also the man behind importation of the only model 1.1 in the Philippines, sold via a dealer. And to my surprise, he only knew about the passing of Arnie during the Manila HiFi Show, via that same exhibitor of the vintage IRS Beta. He showed me a picture of him with Arnie, and family, plus Paul's family members, in his visit to Arnie's factory in Denver while was importing the Genesis line of speakers. He told me how much he treasure those moments, of being in the home of a late great audio legend, and the main thing that has impressed in his mind is that is in one room, in all walls were photos of Albert Einstein.